'Fly-by-wire' single line kites with bio-mechanical thought process control...

Now we're talking. Technologically this is possible today.

I did once think up a wave kite that was a 3 line kite where the lines were joined to a leash line to a ring around your wrist.It was a flat helium inflated wing with a carbon spar with plastic ends which would bend either up or down and had a nose line and the other 2 lines went to a bridle on a line joining the plastic spar end to the trailing edge.

Idea was when you crashed, the kite would float downwind fast and take off automatically and fly to a position overhead if you just held onto the ring (or you could let the ring slide over your hand to release it). Didn't matter which way up the kite was.

Then you pulled the lines down to get to the bar above where the lines joined and started flying it again.

'Fly-by-wire' single line kites with bio-mechanical thought process control...

Now we're talking. Technologically this is possible today.

I did once think up a wave kite that was a 3 line kite where the lines were joined to a leash line to a ring around your wrist.It was a flat helium inflated wing with a carbon spar with plastic ends which would bend either up or down and had a nose line and the other 2 lines went to a bridle on a line joining the plastic spar end to the trailing edge.

Idea was when you crashed, the kite would float downwind fast and take off automatically and fly to a position overhead if you just held onto the ring (or you could let the ring slide over your hand to release it). Didn't matter which way up the kite was.

Then you pulled the lines down to get to the bar above where the lines joined and started flying it again.

I'm having a bit of a time trying to imagining this contraption. Sounds great though.

In terms of Bill's suggestion. Trials of mind control interfaces started 25 years ago..I mean actual mind control not just pretend ones. Today they are very advanced, and can project shadows of images that you view on a screen by scanning your brain activity.

The ones we have today are much more advanced and could easily control a kite. If the kite itself has tiny controller for the wingtips it would almost be trivial to add a wireless controller that connect those two interfaces. To what extent it will be done is a different matter. It would leave us to be able to surf no handed though, and focus more on the boardriding and less on kite control.

Now obviously in an active environment we'd have some issues to deal with, but this is not just fantasy.

Me and a buddy were thinking of adding some spars to the TE of a kite that will extend the foil of the kite, and that will work in different wind ranges. The spars would basically extend the low end, while not being in the way while the wind picks up.

Me and a buddy were thinking of adding some spars to the TE of a kite that will extend the foil of the kite, and that will work in different wind ranges. The spars would basically extend the low end, while not being in the way while the wind picks up. ...

There may be a lot of tuning yet to be discovered for kites, that make the kite distort in good ways as it is hit by gusts, so you get automatic gust control. The kites may have a pattern of fibres a bit like the Airush aramid load frame, but designed to distort in a good way rather than to prevent distortion.

Windsurfing learned how to tune sails around about 1997 and sails nowadays is hugely improved compared to 1995, when they already had 20 years of experience with sails.This is how a windsurf sail is tuned, which creates automatic gust-handling and widens the windrange while giving better handling.

Since we are allowed to be unrealistic here, I am surprised nobody has mentioned the thin plastic bladders that give our kites structure. (Ram airs excluded of course). If there were a way to provide the flexible structure needed without being dependent on bags of air that will surely leak at some point in their useful life.

In the real world, I am sure we can expect bladder and valve (and the adhesives between the two) technologies to improve.

Since we are allowed to be unrealistic here, I am surprised nobody has mentioned the thin plastic bladders that give our kites structure. (Ram airs excluded of course). If there were a way to provide the flexible structure needed without being dependent on bags of air that will surely leak at some point in their useful life.

In the real world, I am sure we can expect bladder and valve (and the adhesives between the two) technologies to improve.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 28 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum